Saturday, 27 August 2016

“The flute is the
true magical rod that changes all it touches in the inward world; an enchanter’s
wand at which the secret depths of the soul open. The inward world is the true
world, the moonlight that shines into our hearts.” ― Jean-Paul FriedrichRichterJohann Christoph Pepusch
(1667 – 20 July 1752), also known as John Christopher Pepusch and Dr Pepusch,
was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England. Pepusch
was born in Berlin. At the age of 14, he was appointed to the Prussian court.
About 1700, he settled in England where he was one of the founders, in 1726, of
The Academy of Vocal Music, which around 1730/1 was renamed The Academy of
Ancient Music. In Joseph Doane’s Musical directory for the year 1794, the
founding of the Academy is discussed; on page 76, Doane states that:“In the year 1710 (memorable for Handel’s first
appearance among us) a number of the most eminent composers and performers in
London [agreed] to concert a plan of an Academy for the study and practice of
Vocal and Instrumental Music, which was no sooner announced than it met the
countenance and support of the principal persons of rank. Among the foremost in
this undertaking were Mr. John Christopher Pepusch, Mr. John Earnest Galleard,
an excellent composer and performer on the Oboe, Mr. Bernard Gates of the
Queen’s Chapel, Henry Niedler, etc.”Pepusch remained
Director of the Academy until his death in 1752, whereupon he was succeeded by
Benjamin Cooke. Pepusch died in London. During a period of twenty years,
Pepusch directed the musical establishment at Cannons, a large house northwest
of London. For a couple of years he worked alongside George Frideric Handel -
in 1717/18 both men were employed there by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos.
Although Pepusch is now best known for his arrangement of the music for “The
Beggar’s Opera” (1728) to the libretto of John Gay, he composed many other
works including stage and church music as well as concertos and continuo
sonatas.Here are Six
Concertos, Op.8 (1717) and Six Flute Sonatas, (1709) performed by Barocco
Veneziano and Claudio Ferrarini (flute).

Friday, 26 August 2016

“Walnuts have a shell, and they have a kernel.
Religions are the same. They have an essence, but then they have a protective
coating. This is not the only way to put it. But it’s my way. So the kernels
are the same. However, the shells are different.” - Huston SmithOur cool and wet Winter weather is continuing so for
the weekend, what better than a little baking with this delicious loaf?Date and Walnut LoafIngredients1 cup water3 tbs butter2/3 cup brown sugar1 cup dates, diced1/2 tsp ground mace1/3 tsp ground nutmeg1/3 tsp ground cloves1 tsp bicarbonate of soda2 eggs1 cup self-raising flour2 ripe bananas, mashed1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (extra, if desired, for decoration)1/2 tsp ground cinnamonMethodPreheat oven to
165˚C fan-forced.Place water,
dates, butter and spices (except cinnamon) in large saucepan and heat to
boiling point, stir until butter is melted.Remove from heat
and add bicarbonate of soda.Allow to cool to
room temperature and then add bananas, eggs, nuts, flour and cinnamon. Stir
well and pour into a greased and lined loaf pan. (Decorate the top with halved
walnuts if desired).Bake for
approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.Allow to rest in
tin for 30 minutes before turning out.Add your favourite recipe below using the Linky tool:

Thursday, 25 August 2016

“Do you know that books smell like nutmeg or some
spice from a foreign land? I loved to smell them when I was a boy. Lord, there
were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go.” - Ray BradburyThe nutmeg
tree, Myristica fragrans, is an
evergreen tree indigenous to the Moluccas (or Spice Islands) of Indonesia. It
is important as the main source of the spices nutmeg and mace. It is
widely grown across the tropics including Guangdong and Yunnan in China,
Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Grenada in the Caribbean, Kerala in India, Sri
Lanka and South America. Myristica fragrans was given a binomial name by the
Dutch botanist Maartyn Houttuyn in 1774. It had earlier been described by Georg
Eberhard Rumphius, among others. The generic name “Myristica” in Greek means
“of pleasant smell” and the specific epithet “fragrans” in Latin, means
"fragrant".It is a small evergreen tree, usually 5–13 m tall,
but occasionally reaching 20 m. The alternately arranged leaves are dark green,
5–15 cm long by 2–7 cm wide with petioles about 1 cm long. The species is
dioecious, i.e. “male” or staminate flowers and “female” or carpellate flowers
are borne on different plants, although occasional individuals produce both
kinds of flower. The flowers are bell-shaped, pale yellow and somewhat waxy and
fleshy. Staminate flowers are arranged in groups of one to ten, each 5–7 mm long;
carpellate flowers are in smaller groups, one to three, and somewhat longer, up
to 10 mm long. Carpellate trees produce smooth yellow ovoid or pear-shaped
fruits, 6–9 cm long with a diameter of 3.5–5 cm. The fruit has a fleshy husk.
When ripe the husk splits into two halves along a ridge running the length of
the fruit. Inside is a purple-brown shiny seed, 2–3 cm long by about 2 cm across,
with a red or crimson covering (an aril). The seed is the source of nutmeg, the
aril the source of mace.Nutmeg and mace have similar sensory qualities, with
nutmeg having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavour. Mace is
often preferred in light dishes for the bright orange, saffron-like hue it
imparts. Nutmeg is used for flavouring many dishes, usually in ground or grated
form, and is best grated fresh in a nutmeg grater.In Indonesian cuisine, nutmeg is used in various
dishes, mainly in many spicy soups, such as some variant of soto, konro, oxtail
soup, sup iga (ribs soup), bakso and sup kambing. It is also used in gravy for
meat dishes, such as semur beef stew, ribs with tomato, to European derived
dishes such as bistik (beef steak), rolade (minced meat roll) and bistik lidah
(beef tongue steak). Sliced nutmeg fruit flesh could be made as manisan
(sweets), either wet, which is seasoned in sugary syrup liquid, or dry coated
with sugar. In Penang cuisine, dried, shredded nutmeg rind with sugar coating
is used as toppings on the uniquely Penang ais kacang. Nutmeg rind is also
blended (creating a fresh, green, tangy taste and white colour juice) or boiled
(resulting in a much sweeter and brown juice) to make iced nutmeg juice.In Indian cuisine, nutmeg is used in many sweet, as
well as savoury, dishes (predominantly in Mughlai cuisine). In Kerala Malabar
region, it is considered medicinal and the flesh made into juice, pickles and
chutney, while the grated nutmeg is used in meat preparations and also
sparingly added to desserts for the flavour. It is also added in small
quantities as a medicine for infants. It may also be used in small quantities
in garam masala. Ground nutmeg is also smoked in India.In Middle Eastern cuisine, ground nutmeg is often
used as a spice for savoury dishes. In traditional European cuisine, nutmeg and
mace are used especially in potato dishes and in processed meat products; they
are also used in soups, sauces, and baked goods. It is also commonly used in
rice pudding. In Dutch cuisine, nutmeg is added to vegetables such as Brussels
sprouts, cauliflower, and string beans. Nutmeg is a traditional ingredient in
mulled cider, mulled wine, and eggnog. In Scotland, mace and nutmeg are usually
both ingredients in haggis. In Italian cuisine, nutmeg is almost uniquely used
as part of the stuffing for many regional meat-filled dumplings like
tortellini, as well as for the traditional meatloaf.Japanese varieties of curry powder include nutmeg as
an ingredient. In the Caribbean, nutmeg is often used in drinks such as the
Bushwacker, Painkiller, and Barbados rum punch. Typically, it is just a
sprinkle on the top of the drink. The pericarp (fruit/pod) is used in Grenada
and also in Indonesia to make jam, or is finely sliced, cooked with sugar, and
crystallised to make a fragrant candy. In the US, nutmeg is known as the main
pumpkin pie spice and often shows up in simple recipes for other winter
squashes such as baked acorn squash.The essential oil obtained by steam distillation of
ground nutmeg is used widely in the perfumery and pharmaceutical industries.
This volatile fraction typically contains 60-80% d-camphene by weight, as well
as quantities of d-pinene, limonene, d-borneol, l-terpineol, geraniol, safrol,
and myristicin. In its pure form, myristicin is a toxin, and consumption of
excessive amounts of nutmeg can result in myristicin poisoning.The oil is colourless or light yellow, and smells and
tastes of nutmeg. It contains numerous components of interest to the
oleochemical industry, and is used as a natural food flavouring in baked goods,
syrups, beverages, and sweets. It is used to replace ground nutmeg, as it
leaves no particles in the food. The essential oil is also used in the cosmetic
and pharmaceutical industries, for instance, in toothpaste, and as a major
ingredient in some cough syrups.In traditional medicine, nutmeg and nutmeg oil were
used for disorders related to the nervous and digestive systems. After
extraction of the essential oil, the remaining seed, containing much less
flavour, is called “spent”. Spent is often mixed in industrial mills with pure
nutmeg to facilitate the milling process, as nutmeg is not easy to mill due to
the high percentage of oil in the pure seed. Ground nutmeg with a variable
percentage of spent (around 10% w/w) is also less likely to clot. To obtain a
better running powder, a small percentage of rice flour also can be added.In low doses, nutmeg produces no noticeable physiological
or neurological response, but in large doses, raw nutmeg has psychoactive
effects. In its freshly ground form (from whole nutmegs), nutmeg contains
myristicin, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor and psychoactive substance.
Myristicin poisoning can induce convulsions, palpitations, nausea, eventual
dehydration, and generalised body pain. It is also reputed to be a strong
deliriant. For these reasons, whole or ground nutmeg cannot be imported into
Saudi Arabia except in spice mixtures where it comprises less than 20%.Nutmeg was once considered an abortifacient, but may
be safe for culinary use during pregnancy. However, it inhibits prostaglandin
production and contains hallucinogens that may affect the fetus if consumed in
large quantities. Nutmeg is highly neurotoxic to dogs and causes seizures,
tremors, and nervous system disorders which can be fatal. Nutmeg’s rich, spicy
scent is attractive to dogs which can result in a dog ingesting a lethal amount
of this spice. Eggnog and other food preparations which contain nutmeg should
not be given to dogs.In the language of flowers, nutmegs accompanying
suitable flowers indicate: “Join me in my chamber.”This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,and also part of the Friday Greens meme,and also part of the Food Friday meme,and also part of the Orange you Glad It's Friday meme.

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.” - Paulo CoelhoFor the Mid-week Motif this week, the folks at the Poets United site look at “Blessings”: Blessing is a gift of bliss, affirmation, hope and inspiration bestowed upon a person. Let’s find out who showers Blessings even in these days of guilt, abuse, greed, misery, crimes and cares. Sometimes we are at the receiving end and sometimes giving. Capture your Blessings in your lines today.

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

"Scotland should be nothing less than equal with all the other nations of the world." - Sean ConneryWelcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel!There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us! Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Edinburgh (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Èideann) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forth's southern shore, it is Scotland's second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh, 492,680 for the local authority area, and 1,339,380 for the City region as of 2014 (Edinburgh lies at the heart of the Edinburgh & South East Scotland).Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and the seat of the monarchy in Scotland. The city is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and home to national institutions such as the National Museum of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Gallery. It is the largest financial centre in the UK after London.Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is also famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe, the latter being the world's largest annual international arts festival.The city's historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdom's second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, and the extensive Georgian New Town, built in the 18th century. Edinburgh's Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999.This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.Add your own travel posts using the Linky tool below,and don't forget to be nice and leave a comment here, and link back to this page from your own post:

Monday, 22 August 2016

“The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at
the beginning, and answer it at the end.” - Lee ChildI like to watch movies, and usually nowadays I tend
to be quite selective of what I watch and when I watch it. It generally means
that I watch movies at home on DVDs or blu-ray discs, in my own time and with
the subtitles on (this has become increasingly necessary nowadays as I often
find that there is a lot of poor sound design in movies with dialogue often
masked by sound effects, music, background noise and horrible accents or
diction by actors).Although I find that I can like films in all genres,
there are some that I will avoid, as for example absurdist or surreal
films that are a self-serving indulgence of the film-makers (let them make it
and watch it themselves!); zombie or
zombie comedy films (there’s only so
much zombie nonsense you can take – in my case, one film was enough); gangster films (violence for the sake
of violence?); slasherhorror movies (more violence for the
sake of violence…); political movies
(usually, they bore me); soppy romance
movies (they too tend to bore me); slice-of-life
movies (especially the unscripted type, they too can be frightfully boring!).One genre that I generally enjoy is a good thriller. A
thriller is a story that is usually
a mix of fear and excitement. It has traits from the suspense genre and often
from the action, adventure or mystery genres, but the level of terror makes it
borderline horror fiction at times as well. It generally has a dark or serious
theme, which also makes it similar to drama. These movies can keep you on the
edge of your seat, can scare you or make you squirm with discomfort, can make
you scream and cry. I enjoy the psychological thriller sub-genre the most, I
think, but there are others.Disaster-thriller: This has a plot revolving around mass
peril, where the protagonist’s job is to not only survive, but also to save
many other people from a grim fate, often a natural disaster such as a storm or
volcanic eruption, but which may also be a terrorist attack or epidemic of some
sort. Tony Scott’s 2010 “Unstoppable” starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson is an example of this
genre.Psychological thriller: Such movies emphasise the psychological
condition of the hero that presents obstacles to his objective, rather than the
action. Some psychological thrillers are also about complicated stories that
try to deliberately confuse the audience, often by showing them only the same
confusing or seemingly nonsensical information that the hero gains. Alfred
Hitchcock’s 1940 “Rebecca” starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, is a classic psych
thriller.Crime thriller: A story that revolves around the life of
lawmen, detectives, law-breakers, criminals, or other groups associated with
criminal events in the story. Quentin Tarantino’s 2015 “The Hateful Eight” starringSamuel L. Jackson, Kurt
Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, is an example of this genre.Techno-thriller: A story whose theme is usually
technology, or the danger behind the technology people use, including the
threat of cyber terrorism such as Pamela Yates’ 2005 “State of Fear” starring Peter Kinoy and Pamela Yates.Adventure Thriller: A sub-genre that seems to straddle
several plot devices and themes, but generally one where there is a lot of
action, tension, terror and unpredictable situations all designed to thrill and
chill. Henry Joost’s and Ariel Schulman’s 2016 “Nerve” starringEmma Roberts, Dave Franco,
Emily Meade is a good example.What are your favourite genres of movies to watch?

Sunday, 21 August 2016

“A line is a dot that went for a walk.” - Paul KleePaul Klee, (born Dec. 18, 1879, Münchenbuchsee,
near Bern, Switz.—died June 29, 1940, Muralto, near Locarno) Swiss painter who
was one of the foremost artists of the 20th century. Klee participated in and
was influenced by a range of artistic movements, including surrealism, cubism
and expressionism. He taught art in Germany until 1933, when the National
Socialists declared his work indecent. The Klee family fled to Switzerland,
where Paul Klee died.Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, on
December 18, 1879. The son of a music teacher, Klee was a talented violinist,
receiving an invitation to play with the Bern Music Association at age 11. As a
teenager, Klee’s attention turned from music to the visual arts. In 1898, he
began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. By 1905, he had developed
signature techniques, including drawing with a needle on a blackened pane of
glass. Between 1903 and 1905, he completed a set of etchings called Inventions that would be his first
exhibited works.In 1906, Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf.
The couple had a son, Felix Paul. Klee’s artwork progressed slowly for the next
five years. In 1910, he had his first solo exhibition in Bern, which
subsequently travelled to three Swiss cities. In January 1911, Klee met art
critic Alfred Kubin, who introduced him to artists and critics. That winter,
Klee joined the editorial team of the journal Der Blaue Reiter, co-founded by Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky.
He began working on colour experiments in watercolours and landscapes,
including the painting “In the Quarry”. Klee’s artistic breakthrough came in
1914, after a trip to Tunisia. Inspired by the light in Tunis, Klee began to
delve into abstract art. Returning to Munich, Klee painted his first pure
abstract, “In the Style of Kairouan”, composed of coloured rectangles and
circles.Klee’s work evolved during World War I, particularly
following the deaths of his friends Auguste Macke and Franz Marc. Klee created
several pen-and-ink lithographs, including “Death for the Idea”, in reaction to
this loss. In 1916, he joined the German army, painting camouflage on airplanes
and working as a clerk. By 1917, art critics began to classify Klee as one of
the best young German artists. A three-year contract with dealer Hans Goltz
brought exposure as well as commercial success.Klee taught at the Bauhaus from 1921 to 1931,
alongside his friend Kandinsky. In 1923, Kandinsky and Klee formed the Blue Four with two other artists, Alexej
von Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger, and toured the United States to lecture and
exhibit work. Klee had his first exhibits in Paris around this time, finding
favour with the French surrealists. Klee began teaching at Dusseldorf Academy
in 1931. Two years later, he was fired under Nazi rule. The Klee family moved
to Switzerland in late 1933. Klee was at the peak of his creative output during
this tumultuous period. He produced nearly 500 works in a single year and
created “Ad Parnassum”, widely considered to be his masterpiece.Two years after returning to Switzerland, Klee fell
ill with a disease that would later be diagnosed as progressive scleroderma,
an autoimmune disease that hardens the skin and other organs. The artist
created only 25 works the year after he fell ill, but his creativity resurged
in 1937 and increased to a record 1,253 works in 1939. His late works dealt
with the grief, pain, resilience, and acceptance of approaching death. Several
of Klee’s works were included in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition staged by the
National Socialists in Munich in 1937. The accusations against Klee's character
and politics that had been waged against him in Germany complicated his
application for Swiss citizenship in 1939. While he had been born in
Switzerland, his father was German, which according to Swiss law meant that
Klee was a German citizen. Klee died on June 29, 1940 in Locarno, Switzerland,
before his final application could be approved.Klee’s artistic legacy has been immense, even if many
of his successors have not referenced his work openly as an apparent source or
influence. During his lifetime, the Surrealists found Klee’s seemingly random
juxtaposition of text, abstract signs, and reductive symbols suggestive of the
way the mind in dream state recombines disparate objects of everyday and thus
brings forth new insights into how the unconscious wields power even over
waking reality.In European art after the 1940s, artists such as Jean
Dubuffet continued to reference the art of children as a kind of untutored,
expressive ideal. Klee’s reputation grew considerably in the 1950s, by which
time, for instance, the Abstract Expressionists could view his work in New York
exhibitions. Klee's use of signs and symbols particularly interested the
artists of the New York School, especially those interested in mythology, the
unconscious, and primitivism (as well as the art of the self-trained and that
of children). Klee’s use of colour as an expressive medium of human emotion in
its own right also appealed to the Colour Field painters, such as Jules Olitski
and Helen Frankenthaler. Finally, American artists maturing in the 1960s and
1970s, such as Ellsworth Kelly owed a debt to Klee for his pioneering colour
theory during the Bauhaus period.The painting above is “City and Sun” of 1928, which is
a work characteristic of the artist. Geometric and strongly delineated, with
carefully applied colour and almost reduced to an abstract image, the painting
still manages to be representational with the title of the work being quote
agreeable to the viewer. On the one
hand, Klee conceives an image that is an expression of his inner landscape,
while on the other also showing a rather free form and playfulness typical of
Klee’s style. Warm and cool colours, square shapes and solar rondel, resolve in
a balanced and harmonious composition that is reminiscent of dream and fantasy.

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Welcome to Nicholas V's Blog on Blogger

I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.

I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome.